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VDECK(1)

NAME

vdeck - generate COMGEOM card decks from a BRL-CAD geometry database

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SYNOPSIS

vdeck [-d] file.g [object ...]

DESCRIPTION

The vdeck tool reads a BRL-CAD geometry database (.g) and produces a COMGEOM card deck, the strictly column-oriented ASCII representation historically used as input to GIFT5 (also gift(1V)). A deck is made of three tables: a Solid table, a Region table, and a region Ident table. When concatenated in that order with cat(1) they form a complete COMGEOM deck.

vdeck runs an interactive command interpreter. Objects are selected from the database table of contents into a working list, and a deck is then written for that list. Object names may be given with the shell-style string-matching operators , ?, [], - and \\ (see *sh(1)). Any object names supplied on the command line after file.g are inserted into the working list before the interpreter starts.

The interactive commands (the first letter is sufficient, and all arguments are optional) are:

deck [prefix]

Produce a COMGEOM card deck for the current list.

erase

Erase the current list of objects.

insert [object …​]

Add matching objects to the current list.

list [object …​]

Display the current list of selected objects.

number [solid] [region]

Set the starting numbers for solids and regions.

quit

Terminate the run.

remove [object …​]

Remove matching objects from the current list.

sort

Sort the table of contents alphabetically.

toc [object …​]

Show the database table of contents.

Typing ? at the prompt prints a menu of these commands.

Only primitives with a COMGEOM equivalent are converted: tor, arb8 (and its degenerate arb forms), ell, tgc (and its rcc/trc/tec/rec forms), ars, half, and arbn. Primitives without a COMGEOM equivalent are written as a placeholder record and skipped with a warning.

OPTIONS

-d

Enable debug output. Region and solid processing is reported on standard output as the deck is built.

EXAMPLES

Example 1. Build and concatenate a COMGEOM deck for a group
vdeck havoc.g
command ( ? for menu ) >> insert havoc
command ( ? for menu ) >> deck havoc
command ( ? for menu ) >> quit
cat havoc.st havoc.rt havoc.id > havoc.cg

Selects the havoc group from the database, writes the three deck files havoc.st, havoc.rt, and havoc.id, then concatenates them in Solid/Region/Ident order into a single COMGEOM deck havoc.cg suitable for input to GIFT5. Without a prefix argument to deck, the files are named solids, regions, and region_ids instead.

FILES

solids, regions, region_ids

Default Solid, Region, and region Ident tables (when deck is given no prefix).

prefix.st, prefix.rt, prefix.id

Solid, Region, and region Ident tables (when deck is given a prefix).

SEE ALSO

brlcad(1), mged(1), cat(1), sh(1)

AUTHOR

BRL-CAD Team

This software is Copyright (c) 1989-2026 by the United States Government as represented by U.S. Army Research Laboratory.

BUG REPORTS

Reports of bugs or problems should be submitted via electronic mail to devs@brlcad.org